


Hallelujah, You're Home

by tymedfire



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, I'm Sorry, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lance Angst, Langst, Minor Character Death, Team as Family, lots of feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 11:57:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11207595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tymedfire/pseuds/tymedfire
Summary: It’s been two years. Two years since they’ve felt rain on their faces. Two years since they’ve seen their families, since they’ve spoken to their families. Two years since they really started to learn what war was. Two years since they stopped being teenagers and became soldiers. Two years since they left Earth. Three, for Shiro.But now they’re going back. They’re going home.





	Hallelujah, You're Home

**Author's Note:**

> For full effect, listen to Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran while reading.  
> I'm so sorry.

It’s been two years. Two years since they’ve felt rain on their faces. Two years since they’ve seen their families, since they’ve spoken to their families. Two years since they really started to learn what war was. Two years since they stopped being teenagers and became soldiers. Two years since they left Earth. Three, for Shiro.

But now they’re going back. They’re going home.

Well, for a little while, at least. The war isn’t over. The Galra Empire has been taking over the universe for over 10,000 years, it can’t be taken down in simply two. But in two years, the Voltron Alliance has grown substantially, and they’ve taken down enough Galra higher ups that Voltron is almost universally known and called upon, and with fame, comes questions. It’s not a secret anymore that the five Paladins of Voltron are from Earth. Everybody knows, so there’s no point in avoiding Earth anymore. At least, that’s what the Paladins keep telling Allura. Earth is vulnerable now; it’s a target, and with it’s technology as unadvanced as it was when they left, they’re at a serious disadvantage if the Galra ever attacked. They probably still have no idea that aliens even exist. Earth needs Voltron. Earth needs the Voltron Alliance, and the Voltron Alliance needs Earth. 

Also, Lance just really needs his mom.

So, here they are, entering the Milky Way Galaxy, all waiting anxiously at their stations on the control deck.

“Ha! Boom, bitches! Wi-fi is up!” Pidge punches her fists in the air in triumph and ignores the half-hearted look her father shoots her when she says “bitches”.  
The others have long since gotten used to Pidge and her amazing technical ability, but they still all look at her in shock, except for Matt. He had obviously helped her. 

“Pidge, how the hell did you get wi-fi in space?” Keith asks incredulously. 

Lance nods in agreement. “Seriously. Tell me how I can’t get a signal in the desert outside of Galaxy Garrison, but you can get one past Saturn.”  
At this, Pidge snorts and raises an eyebrow at them. “You didn’t have me. Or amazingly amplifying Altean technology.” 

“Something tells me it was mostly the Altean tech.”

“Shh and bow before my genius.” 

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance all immediately grab their phones and start scrolling on them, ignoring Coran’s announcement that they’ll be to Earth in two dobashes. 

“Oh my god. They told everybody we’re all dead. We have a memorial!” Pidge exclaims.

“Where? Is it a good one? How did we die?” Lance questions. 

Matt ends up answering, looking over Pidges shoulder. “At the Garrison. We’re in it, too. It says… ah. Training accident. Doesn’t really specify exactly what happened. Just that there was an accident and no bodies were recovered. I bet that went over well.” 

“Yeah, my mom would not like that at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if my parents sued them or something.”

“Same. Mom probably went absolutely ballistic, no way she would take three of her family members’ deaths with no bodies laying down.”

“Oh man, they must have all been so sad. And now, after two years, we’re just back? There’s no way anybody is gonna take this well, especially if they hear about us being back before they see us. Do we really have to deal with all the politics first, Allura? It’s gonna take so long!” 

Allura smiles sadly at Hunk before responding, “Yes, Hunk, I’m sorry. We can’t have one of you getting shot down or taken in by your governments like last time. You’ve said that that is the usual response to unknown warships, yes? We must stay together. I’m sor- Lance? Are you okay?”

The others all turn to see that Lance’s face has gone a sickly pale color and his hands are trembling. “Lance?” Hunk asks urgently, getting up to run to Lance’s chair. “Lance, buddy, what’s wrong?” For a few seconds, Lance doesn’t answer, which worries them all more; he just stares at his phone. When he does answer, his voice is barely above a whisper. “My… it’s… my mom. Marie just posted… it says… oh god.” His voice breaks and his hands shake harder as his chest begins to heave. Hunk gently takes the phone out of his friends hands. Once empty, Lance’s hands wrap around his middle and he tries to get his breathing under control. 

As Hunk reads what’s on Lance’s phone, his eyes grow wider and wider. One hand comes up to cover his mouth as he gasps. Lance’s head snaps around to Hunk when he starts to speak, as if making sure that Hunk can see it, too. 

“It says… oh god, Lance.” Hunk looks at Lance, then looks at the rest of his team, tears filling his eyes. “His mom. His mom is dying. Marie says that the doctor says that she maybe has a day or two left. Oh, Lance.” He turns to his best friend and wraps his arms around Lance, who freezes in Hunk’s grip, clearly in shock. Lance sits still for a few seconds as the others process this turn of events before his head snaps to Allura and he says, in the most broken voice Pidge thinks she’s ever heard,

“Allura. Please, I can’t- please. Plea-”

Allura interrupts before Lance can even finish begging. “Of course. Of course. When we get to Earth, go see your mother. But someone needs to go with you.”

Hunk looks up at this and starts to say “I will” before Pidge interrupts him.

“No,” she says fiercely, seriously. The others look at her, surprised. “Hunk, you’re the best human diplomat here besides Lance. You need to stay here to cool whoever Allura is talking with down. I’ll go with Lance. We all know I would just go off on them anyway and probably make things harder. I’ll go with him.” More than a little pleading seeps into her voice toward the end of her speech. Truthfully, Lance had always been there for her when Matt and her dad were missing and she can't stand the thought of not doing the same for him.

“Well, by those standards, I should go with y’all, too!” Keith cries. 

“No, Keith,” Shiro puts a hand on his shoulder. “We can’t have too many of us gone, you know humans. They need to be able to trust us. We don’t want them to think we’re up to something.” He looks sadly over at Lance. “Pidge has him.” 

Pidge nods determinedly, grateful for Shiro’s look of confidence.

Throughout the entire debate, Lance had just sat in his best friend’s arms, alternating staring at each of his teammates. Pidge is honestly surprised he hasn’t started crying yet, but perhaps it isn’t real to him yet. She knows that, after two years, learning her mom was dying wouldn’t feel real until she actually saw her. 

She doesn’t think she’s prepared to deal with a crying and broken Lance.

Sure, she’s spent a fair amount of times with homesick Lance. They took turns finding each other in the middle of the night, just missing home and their families. Pidge knows his family almost as well as she knows her own by now. And, she’s seen him cry. They both cry with each other on particularly hard nights, when talking and reminiscing doesn’t help the ache in their hearts.

This is different, and Pidge’s heart aches for her pseudo-big brother. She wishes she had a time machine, so she could go back and just… stop everything. Stop Lance ever leaving his family. Stop the Kerberos mission from leaving. But things turned out okay for her in the end. She has her brother and her father back, however damaged they may be. 

“We’ll check in on you guys once we’ve made solid contact with the United Nations.”

—

They walk into the hospital silently. Lance and Pidge are both wearing their normal clothes, with their bayards strapped to their lower backs. Lance doesn’t know how to feel. It doesn’t feel real. His mom can’t be dying, she can’t be sick. He’d imagined so many scenarios in space, of their meeting, or lack thereof. He’d imagined coming home to his house, finding his entire family there, celebrating a birthday or a holiday. They would all cry when he came in, and hug him tight for hours. There’d be food and a party. Celebration. 

Sometimes only his mom would be home in his fantasies. She’d hug him and kiss him and they’d cry together. She’d call the rest of his family through her tears, but they’d be happy tears. He could talk to her forever, content in her arms.

He’d imagined never getting to come home. He’d vividly visualized his team finding his family back on Earth. They’d have to tell his family that he hadn’t died on Earth, but he’d died in space, protecting them. Maybe heroically, maybe because of one of his own stupid mistakes. He’d always been so afraid of leaving them wondering, of never coming home.

He’d never imagined he’d come home to find home leaving him.

He has to work to steady his breath as he looks around for a receptionist. He feels a hand sneak it’s way into his and he shoots Pidge a small smile. He squeezes her hand. He’s glad she’s here.  
A second later, she nudges him and points with her free hand to a tv in one of the waiting areas. It shows a news report of an alien ship hovering just inside orbit. “So far, it appears non-hostile. Sources say the ship has contacted the UN, though the details have yet to be released. There is no need to panic at this time.” Pidge snorts at the anchor woman’s last line. Lance is about to try to say something sarcastic, if only to lighten the mood a bit, when he hears - 

“Lance?” 

Lance whips around and he can’t help the tears that spring from his eyes when he sees his oldest brother for the first time in over two years. Javier stares at him, mouth hanging open in disbelief for a solid twenty seconds. Lance stares back, tears falling freely from his eyes, too afraid to move. He doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know what to feel, doesn’t know how his brother is going to react until -

Javier drops the shopping bag in his hands and charges at Lance, wrapping him in a hug tighter than even Hunk’s most passionate hugs. He’s speaking, whispering Lance’s name over and over again, and he’s crying. Lance is astonished. He’s never seen his older brother cry. Lance buries his face in Javier’s neck, not worrying about how wet he’s making his shirt. He cries, happy and sad tears. He’s so happy that Javier is here. Lance hadn’t realized it, but he had been sorely hoping he wouldn’t have to see all of his family all at once. He needed a little bit of preparation, and Javi was the perfect person to give it to him.

Javier pushes Lance back and just stares at him, a watery smile growing on his face. “You’ve gotten taller! Ah, you look… so grown up, Lance, where - where have you been?!” Before Lance can answer he’s pulled back into a hug, his older brother’s hand ruffling his hair. Lance lets out a sigh. He’d missed that. 

“I’ll explain, I promise, but… I don’t think I can do it more than once right now. Um… Mom?” Javier squeezes him once more before letting him go and wiping his eyes. He nods, picking up the bags he had dropped. 

Javi sighs. “Yeah. She’s not doing well. It’s a good thing you got here when you did.” Javier squints at him, considering something. “That ship on the news. That’s where you’ve been, isn’t it?” Lance hesitates, then nods. “I thought so. How’d you know to come here, then?” 

Before he can answer, Pidge pipes up, startling them both. Lance had forgotten she was there. “That was me. I hooked up the internet and we saw Lance’s sister’s post. We came straight here.” 

“Yeah. That. Sorry, Javi, this is P-”

“Katie,” Pidge interjects, holding out her hand, then withdrawing it quickly with a blush as she realizes Javier’s hands are full. 

Lance furrows his eyebrows at her, but decides not to question her. “Right. My friend, Katie. Katie,” he exaggerates. Pidge rolls her eyes at him. “This is my oldest brother, Javier.”

“Nice to meet you, Katie. You were one of the cadets that went missing with Lance, right?” 

Pidge nods, impressed. “Observant. The Garrison never figured out who I was, even with my brother and dad being so well known. Yeah, we’ve been together this whole time.” She suddenly blushes and scrambles to correct herself. “I mean, no, not - not together but - yeah.”

“Right, yeah.” Javier smiles at her. “Come on. Mom is this way.” 

Walking slightly behind Javier, Lance leans in close to Pidge, smiling slightly despite himself. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that flustered before. Javier’s cute, but he’s a little old for you-” He gets a shove in response. 

“No, I’m just. This is your family. I feel like I know them already, you’ve talked them up so much, and I don’t wanna make a bad impression!” 

Lance pulls her in for a side hug. “You’re family, Pidge. Impressions don’t matter. Excuse me, Katie.”

Pidge huffs. “Oh, shut up. You don’t have to call me Katie. Katie is just… my Earth name. It feels right on Earth, so Earth people should know me as Katie, but Pidge is my space name I guess. My space family calls me Pidge, my Earth family calls me Katie.”

Before Lance can respond, they reach the room. The small smile leaves Lance’s face instantly. His heart is hammering in his chest as he stares at the closed door. He doesn’t want to go in. He doesn’t want to see his mom, his beautiful, strong, perfect mother, sick and dying, tubes and wires sticking out of her. He can’t handle that, he can’t. 

Javier is watching him. He meets Lance’s eyes for a second before saying, “Wait here,” and slipping into the room. Lance can hear him talking behind the door, but he can’t make out the words.  
“I can’t do this,” Lance whispers, hands trembling. He feels like his chest is being crushed and he hasn’t even gone into the room yet. He never imagined he would ever not want to see his family, but right now he wishes he was anywhere but here. 

Pidge steps closer to him, slipping her hand in his and holding tight. “You can,” she reassures him. “You can. You have to. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t. You’re not alone, Lance. You can do this.”

Lance hears strangled screams from the room, and then the door is flung open. 

“Lance.” He’s not sure who says it, not sure who grabs his shirt and pulls him into the room, into a hug. Maybe it was more than one person. There are tears everywhere, and people hugging him and whispering his name, but he pushes past all of them, his eyes on his mom. She looks just like he imagined her. There are tears streaming down her face as she reaches a hand toward him. He gets to her as fast as he can, taking her hand and leaning over to hug her. He’s careful not to put too much weight on her, and he hates that he can’t hug her as tightly as he wants to. 

“Oh, my baby, my Lance. You’re alive, you’re alive, my baby boy is alive.” He’s sobbing loudly into her shoulder. With great effort, he pulls back and just looks at her, holding as tightly as possible to her hand. She looks paler than normal, and skinnier, but her eyes shine just the way he remembers. There are tears streaming down both of their cheeks and he can hear others in the room softly crying and whispering to each other, but he can’t take his eyes off his mama. “How? How? Where have you been?”

Through tears, and holding her hand, Lance explains. He doesn’t tell her everything, doesn’t mention being blown up and glosses over the danger of it all, but he can tell that she knows. As he speaks he can hear gasps from his family, but otherwise the entire room is silent. He doesn’t let go of her the entire time, and she holds onto him just as tightly. 

He’s not prepared for how extremely sad she looks when he finishes. 

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Mama. I didn’t mean to leave you, I just… I’m so sorry."

The hand not holding onto his comes up to stroke his cheek. “Oh, baby. You’ve been… You’ve been in a war? You’ve been…” she lets out a breath. “I know you’re sorry, but you’ve been doing something good, haven’t you? You’ve been helping people?” 

“I’ve been trying.”

His mom smiles at him, tears in her eyes. “I am so proud of you. So proud. I missed you so much, honey, but you’ve been doing good, and that’s all I can ask for you.”

Lance gapes at her, speechless for a second. “But – no! I should have been here, with you! I – “

Lances mother fixes him with a stern look. “Lance Alejandro McClain. This is not your fault.” Lance had forgotten how good she was at reading him. Missed. He’d missed it. He’d missed her, so much. “It’s not your fault, baby. I’m so glad you’re home.” She dissolves into a coughing fit, pulling the hand on his face back to cover her mouth. Lance’s father moves to help her sit up. 

When she finishes, she looks at Pidge, who had tucked herself in the corner, out of the way, and smiles warmly. “Lance, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” She holds her hand out toward Pidge, and the smaller girl takes hesitantly. Lance’s mom doesn’t wait for him to actually introduce them, though, instead taking it upon herself. “I’m Lances mom. You’re my son’s friend?”

Pidge nods, still holding the older woman’s hand. “Katie,” she says quietly. “He’s my best friend.”

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Katie. You take care of my boy, okay?”

In another life, Pidge thinks that she and Lances mom could have been good friends. She nods her assent and the older woman’s hand tightens around her own.

She smiles at Lance, then around the room. She lets out a breathy laugh and says, “For the first time in months, my entire family, everyone I love, is in one room.” She smiles, tears in her eyes, and gently caresses Lances face. “I couldn’t be happier.”

Lance’s momma dies thirteen minutes later.

—

Her funeral is three days later. Pidge had gone home, but not before hugging Lance tight and assuring him she’d be back with the team for the funeral. The three days in between that, the McClain house is anything but quiet. Javier has to wrangle kids down more than once, though not as much as he’d expected. Lance seems content to gather all the kids up and start a new game any time they get out of control. Javier spends a lot of time watching his little brother, as do many of his relatives. He can tell that his brother is different, and not just because of their mother. He carries himself differently. He still acts like the same old Lance just – more confident. Javier catches him, more than once, sitting quietly, staring off into space, then closing his eyes and smiling softly, before getting up and joining the conversation again. When he asked about it, Lance smiled and said, 

“Oh, that’s Blue. Sometimes the team.” When Mariposa, their sister, gave him a questioning look, he elaborated. “We have a mental connection, all five of us. It’s not as strong when we’re not in Voltron, but after all this time it’s always there. We can’t, like, talk to each other or anything, but I can always feel them. It’s nice. Comforting. We check on each other.”

Not for the first time, Javier really wants to meet the rest of Team Voltron.

The mood at the funeral is somber, but joyful. Mrs. McClain didn’t want her family to be too sad, but to celebrate her life, and enjoy their time together. So, they smiled and cried at the same time. Lance was particularly good at that. 

Just before the ceremony begins, everyone’s attention is pulled to a small ship landing some yards from the cemetery. Javier and Mariposa watch side by side as Lance breaks away and walks toward the direction of the ship. He stops after only walking a few feet, and waits.

Javier can’t see his brothers face, but he can tell when Lance stands up taller that he’s spotted the small crowd coming toward them. He’s a little surprised at the amount of people leaving the ship. Hadn’t Lances team only had six other people? 

The small one, Katie, is the first to reach Lance. Once she’s within six yards of Lance, she sprints toward him. She crashes into him like a small torpedo. She buries her face into his stomach and Lance’s arms instantly lock around her, burying his own face in her wild hair. Lance’s old friend, Hunk, isn’t even a step behind Katie, throwing his arms around Lances shoulders from the side, tears streaming down his face. Lance wraps one of his hands around Hunk’s wrist, the other still clutching the back of Katie’s shirt. A kid, shorter than Lance, but taller than Katie, with black hair and Asian features reaches the group at the same time as a taller man with orange hair and pointy ears. Keith and Coran, Javier thinks. The latter goes to the side of Lance that’s devoid of Hunk, placing a hand on his shoulder and leaning in, whispering. Keith, no longer hesitant with physical affection with his teammates, wraps his arms around Hunk and Coran, behind Lance, and presses his face into the side of the other boys neck. A tall, muscular man Javier recognizes as Takashi Shirogane and an equally tall and beautiful woman with pointy ears reach the group last, all the other people they’d come with hanging back a bit. Javier surmises that the woman has to be Princess Allura. The princess smiles sadly at the group and reaches forward, untangling Lance’s hand from Katie’s shirt and clutching it between her own two hands, squeezing comfortingly. Shiro is the last to reach out. Javier is slightly surprised when the man reaches forward and tangles his human hand in Lance’s hair, pulling his head up so that Lance is looking at him. He then presses his forehead to the younger boys and closes his eyes. Javier has to smile at how similar a gesture it is to the one that he himself used to do to get Lance to calm down when he was having a panic attack when he was younger. He can see Lance shaking, and is close enough to hear his voice hitch as he tries to hold in his sobs. Appreciation surges through Javier as he watches these people comfort his baby brother. 

It seems his brother has found another family. A good one. Javier can only be happy about it.

As the group untangles themselves, Katie tries to pull away, but Lance’s arms tighten around her. “I’m right here,” Javier hears her say. “I won’t leave.” Lance nods and lets her go. He gives them all a shaky smile and jerks his head, telling them to follow him. They do, and Javier doesn’t miss how Katie stands so close to Lance that their arms are touching. He reminds himself to tell them how grateful he is to them later. They take care of his little brother, and Javier can’t thank them enough for that. They all seem to understand Lance and just what he needs. 

The group behind Team Voltron, Javier realizes upon closer inspection, are the paladin’s families. He recognizes Hunk’s parents and younger brother. Another family can’t be anybody’s family but Katie’s; the two kids are practically identical. There’s one other family, two parents and two kids, but Javier isn’t sure if they’re Keith’s or Shiro’s. 

Introductions are made (Javier finds out the mystery family is Shiro’s), and the ceremony begins. There are no chairs for the sheer amount of people. As Lance gets to his spot he feels a tug on his pants. His niece, Daisy, looks up at him with the best puppy dog eyes he thinks he’s ever seen, and holds up her arms. Lance obliges and sets her on his hip. He stands there as the ceremony starts, surrounded by his family; blood on his left, found on his right. His heart aches for his mother, but it fills as he realizes how much he has left. His gigantic, beautiful, stubborn, annoying, wonderful family. He cries for his mom some more, but he can almost feel her beside him, smiling sweetly and telling him to “take it all in, mijo”.

As the ceremony winds down, his niece looks at him questioningly. “Uncle Lance?”

“Niece Daisy?” The response doesn’t get the giggle it usually elicits.

“You’re fighting in a space war, right?” He hums affirmative, not liking how she phrased the question. The little girl bites her lip uncertainly. “Are you gonna die? Like abuela did?”

Lance’s heart breaks for the second time in four days. He’s not sure how to respond. He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he doesn’t want to tell her the truth either. 

He pulls the little girl to him in a hug. “Oh, honey. I… You know how your mama will always protect you? And how your daddy always picks you up and cleans your scrapes when you fall down? How your family always has and always will protect you?” She nods. “It’s like that. Up in space I have another family that keeps me safe. They protect me just like I protect them.”

She looks at him thoughtfully. “But… abuela died. Did we not protect her right?”

“Oh, no. We protected her with everything we had, but she was ready to go. Sometimes the time is just right. She was done. She was happy. But I’m not gonna be done until I come back and take you all around space, ya got that?” He tickles his niece lightly and blows raspberries into her cheek, making her shriek with laughter. 

Lance could listen to that laugh forever.

He puts Daisy down and the little girl runs off immediately. He feels a warm presence come up behind him and he turns to see Hunk smiling sadly at him. Lance gives him a smile in return and Hunk’s turns into a full on grin. He pulls Lance into a bear hug and Lance thinks he hears Pidge giggle. He leans into Hunks chest, happily wrapping his arms around his best friend. There, in his best friends arms with both his families all around him, Lance thinks he might be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Daisy, who inspires pretty much every fic I write. Comments, kudos, and constructive criticism appreciated!! Also, I'm on tumblr as tymedfire, come fangirl about voltron and Lance McClain with me. Thanks so much for reading!!


End file.
